My Dear Brothers and Sisters,<\/p>\n
In our experience of life, when we sin, we feel a distance from the Lord. \u00a0Like the Prophet Jonah, we try to get as far away from God as we can. \u00a0But like Jonah, we run into God no matter where we go. \u00a0Like Psalm 139 questioned: \u201cWhere can I go from your Spirit? \u00a0From your presence, where can I flee? \u00a0If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I sink to the nether world, You are present there!\u201d \u00a0Nevertheless, if we insist on it, the Lord will let us finally escape from Him. \u00a0This place of escape is called hell, or eternal damnation, where we can separate ourselves from God forever.<\/p>\n
When we run away from God by sinning, the Lord will try to flesh us out of our hiding place. \u00a0As He did with Adam and Eve in the Genesis, the Lord will call to us: \u201cWhere are you?\u201d \u00a0If we turn back to Him, He will meet us much more than halfway. \u00a0Indeed, our Heavenly Father will run out to meet us, throw His arms around our neck and kiss us as in the parable of prodigal son.<\/p>\n
However, the Lord will not force Himself on any of us. \u00a0We must repent. \u00a0Like in today\u2019s Gospel, when Peter distanced himself from Jesus by going back into the fishing business and rejecting Jesus\u2019 call to be a fisher of men, Jesus reached out to Peter and give him another chance, another catch. \u00a0Peter took this opportunity and immediately said, \u201cYes\u201d to Jesus. \u00a0Then he met Jesus in the miraculous catch of fish. \u00a0He repented and jumped back into the mercy of Jesus: \u201cJump down into water and put on clothes to meet Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thus, in God\u2019s love for us, Jesus will travel all time and space to be close to us. \u00a0Through repentance, we must cover a few yards to get to Jesus. \u00a0In this Easter season, we should ask ourselves this question: \u201cHow close are we to Jesus?\u201d \u00a0If we have distanced ourselves from Him, let us repent and jump into God\u2019s mercy, where Jesus will meet us.<\/p>\n
Happy Easter Season to you all.<\/p>\n
With love,<\/p>\n
Fr. Thuong Hoai Nguyen, Pastor<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My Dear Brothers and Sisters, In our experience of life, when we sin, we feel a distance from the Lord. \u00a0Like the Prophet Jonah, we try to get as far away from God as we can. \u00a0But like Jonah, we run into God no matter where we go. \u00a0Like Psalm 139 questioned: \u201cWhere can I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n